Brian Helgeland has brought his old crew from A Knight's Tale back together again. Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon, and Mark Addy..... HUZZAH! Yes folks, the winning team has come together yet again to bring us The Order.

Instead of jousting and knights, this time we have Ledger as Alex Bernier who is a member of the Carolingians (an obscure order of Catholic priests). The head honcho has died and Alex is sent to investigate. Once upon a time Alex had performed an exorcism on Mara Sinclair (Sossamon, who also has a crush on him) and recruits her aid... and also ropes in his old buddy Father Thomas (Addy).

Nothing is what it seems here. It's all about a 'Sin Eater', often referred to by the Church as 'The Other' (when they acknowledge he exists at all). The Sin Eater takes a dying persons sins into himself, and has the power to absolve outside the Church. They don't like that one bit. heh.

This Sin Eater (Benno Fürmann) wants Alex to take over the biz, and the Church wants Alex to find him and eliminate him with an ancient ceremonial dagger.

They were just demons disguised as children..nothing I couldn't handle

Ledger and the old crew do fabulous jobs in this. They work very well together and the chemistry between Ledger and Sossamon was much stronger this time around. Addy is just flat excellent in everything he does. There are even some comedic moments between the three of them.

West German actor Benno Fürmann (Wolfsburg, Princess and the Warrior) surprised me. I'd never heard of him before this and was quite impressed. He plays the role of the Sin Eater so close to the cuff that you are never quite sure if he's the bad guy or really the good guy.

As with A Knight's Tale, Brian Helgeland both wrote and directed this one. The story was a good one, and the acting was tight... but I'm sad to say the pacing was just too slow. There were parts that I was kind of looking around the theater, even with Ledger up there on the big screen. That's a shame. He has left it open for a sequel, and I will go see that if it transpires, but I do hope he steps it up a notch or three.

Some of the scenes were shot just a tad too dark for my liking too. Overall it was done well, just a few spots that you weren't quite sure what you were looking at because you just couldn't see it. The shots of Rome were sweet though.

Interesting Trivia for ya: Originally scheduled for January 17, 2002, the film's release date was postponed when the visual effects had to be redone because they were thought to be unintentionally funny. According to a anonymous source close to the production quoted by Variety magazine, the special effects depicting sins exiting the human body after death looked like "calamari". ~ IMDB.com

This one runs 103 minutes and is Rated R for violent images, sexuality and language. I'm thinkin 16 and up for this one. There's limited language (mostly by priests..heh) and I believe one pretty racy scene between Sossamon and Ledger, but nothing a 16 can't handle with ease.

My final decision is 3 stars in spite of the great acting and storyline. The pacing just kinda really got to me. I do recommend it, though you may want to wait for the DVD on this one. Heavily religious folks may not like this too much...


Recommended: Yes